Here we go….

Here we go. For quite some time now, it’s been suggested that the City of Lakes Community Land Trust (CLCLT) begin a blog to discuss affordable housing items. This past year, CLCLT Public Relations Committee members amped up the pressure to do increase our social media presence and we’ve committed to weekly blogs over the next year (and beyond, we suppose). The postings will primarily be my responsibility, but CLCLT board members, staff, and homeowners have also all committed to posting throughout the year.

We’ve given it some thought and would like to open the conversation beyond just affordable housing. Over the next year we’ll be posting on anything related to the daily challenges and opportunities facing the CLCLT. These topics could range from the importance permanantly affordable housing policies to community engagement to comments on the challenges/successes of the homeowners we’ve been fortunate to assist over the years. I think we are in a good organizational position to provide a unique perspective on a fairly broad range of issues that all tie back to the the organizational mission of CLCLT.

In short, my elevator speech on the meaning of the CLCLT mission is that the organization does a pretty darn good job of:

Assisting households otherwise unable to purchase a home in the City of Minneapolis be able to do so; AND

Ensuring that if, and when, said households ever want to sell their home, the CLCLT is there to make sure the homes stay affordable for another income-qualified household; AND

Perhaps most importantly, if the CLCLT is able to assist a household buy a home, the organization needs to be there to support the household not only to be successful in homeownership, but also in making our community a better place to live.

Wrapped up into the above bullets is a home-ownercentric approach to all of our work. It’s a pretty simple concept that’s fundamental to successfully achieiving our mission…if the homeowners we been able to assist in buying a home are unsuccessful in homeownership, we are also unsuccessful. We look forward to posting on a wide-range of topics and bringing the conversation back to making our community a better place through the CLCLT.